for weeks we're investigating faith and family. in the next hour you believe the bible commands them to spank their children so hard that it hurts, they cause physical pain. they call it spiritual spanking, and they believe it's god's will. lydia was beaten to death in the name of god. she allegedly mispronounced a word during the home schooling session. that was her sin. >> we heard the phrase death by a thousand lashes. that's basically what this was. >> her parent pleaded guilty but was sent to prison. but michael pearl is still spreading his gospel through a book he wrote with his wife to train up a children. more than a million companies have been sold. they wrote advertiseit as a blu >> it says if you spare the rod, you hate your children. but if you love him, you chase him timely. >> they say they're not to blame, but spare the rod, spoil the child is a message many fundmental christians and preachers embrace. you'll hear from a woman whose parn parents followed the teachings. she calls it abuse. >> this is a systemic form of brainwashing of these children. >> our investigation led us to a corner of christian fundamentalism that operates beyond the reach of authorities. they say they build character and help wayward young christians find thirty paeir pa to god. some describe them as houses of horror. >> they bodily man handled me to the floor, and he hit me with a board as hard as he could. i was shocked. i had been paddled my whole life and never was hit like that. >> i have nightmares about it all the time. like very vivid dreams trapped inside of this house again and can't get out. >> accusations of abuse physical and emotional all inflicted in the name of god. you'll hear their stories ahead and hear from the pastor that rubs the home. >> a lot of people complain they've been abused at your house. can you give us a comment about that? >> well, i would rather not. >> he wasn't happy to see us, but he answered some questions. that's ahead. we begin with a case that put michael and debbie pearl's popular christian parenting book on the defensive. it's a book familiar to christians to help raise their kids. until now it didn't get much attention outside those circles, but that's changing now that a little girl has died. here's part one of gary tuchman's report. >> reporter: the small town of paradise, california. where these children lived with their parents in a fundament fundamentalist christian home. for the young children life in paradise was anything but. we cover up eight of their faces because they're the survivors a violent form of discipline practiced by their parents. the one face not cover soldier the 7-year-old adopted daughter lydia. she was killed by her parents. mike ramsey is the district attorney of butte county in northern california. >> we've heard of the phrase "death by a thousand lashes." that's basically what this was. >> this is where the family used to live. the children's sandbox is still here and so is their slide and their treehouse, but the surviving children are now in foster homes and the parents are in prison. >> violated section 273 a. >> they pleaded guilty to killing lydia and seriously injured her 11-year-old sister who almost died. authorities say kevin and elizabeth shots beat their children regularly because they believed god wanted them to do. the district attorney said the shots believed. >> spare the rod will spoil the child. if you can train your hours and dog you can train your children. >> 7-year-old lydia suffered terribly supposedly in the name of god, but authorities say this was torture and murder by parents who were supposed to love and cher rich their child. inside this house they found important evidence. the so-called biblical rods they had inside. what they were were 15-inch long plumbing supply tubes used to beat the children and also important? a book was found inside. a book that appeared to light the fuse to the deadly brutality. the book is called "to train up a child." it's author is this man on the tractor, michael pearl and his wife, debbie. they consider themself observant christian who run an organization called no greater joy ministries from their tennessee farm. >> well, i'm a preacher, minister of the gospel. >> their book and others they've written stacked in a warehouse on their farm. all of them guided, they say, by the teachings in the bible. >> it says if you spare the rod, you hate your children. if you love him you chase in him timely. >> a rod according to the pearls' manual can be a tree switch to a spatula. in the book they describe it as a magic wand. god would not command parents to use the rod if it were not good for the child. they say parents should stay in control, but they declare any spanking to effectively reinforce instruction must cause pain. let's say a 7-year-old slugs his sister. >> he would get a -- a 7-year-old would get 10 or 15 licks, and it would be a formal ling. in other words, you maintain your patience and explain to him what he did was violent and that that's not acceptable in society and it's not acceptable in the home. i would take him somewhere like into his bedroom and i would tell him i'd give him 15 licks. >> with what? >> probably a belt with that boy. it would be handy. i might use a wooden spoon or a piece of, like, plumbing supply line, a quarter inch in diameter, flexible. >> something flexible. >> why not use your hand instead of all the material things? >> let me show you something. does that hurt? >> doesn't feel good. >> look what it's doing to your whole body. your hand so something is a karate chop. >> my children never had marks left on them. >> look at the body of zaria, the daughter seriously injured by her parents. these are some of her wounds, other wounds and bruises hour body and on the body of her sister lydia at that died are too graphic to show. lydia was so severely beaten she died with a condition usually associated with earthquakes and bombings. what do you think influences the shotses to beat, terrorize and forment their children by them? >> a book by mr. pearl. there's no doubt about that. >> lydia was beaten for seven continuous hours, interrupted by short prayer breaks on the day she died. the sound of the police siren was recorded by a paradise police officer racing to the house. when he arrived he tried to save lydia with cpr with both of the parents present. >> she's swallowed a lot of vomit. >> she was like really tired and her eyes, her vision was blurry. >> come on, baby. >> listen later in the day to the seriously injured zaria. >> where do you get spanked? just on the arms and your back? >> on my bottom and on my back last night, too. underneath my feet. >> underneath your feet? zariah, i'd like to take you to the hospital, okay? >> i probably need to bring a pot because i might throw up again. >> at the sentencing hearing zariah had the courage to address her parents in open court about her deceased sister. she said, why did you adopt her? to kill her? it's a heart-breaking story. kevin pleaded guilty to murder and torture and will be in jail for at least 22 years. elizabeth for at least 12. do you think if the shotses did not read the pearls' books there would be a good chance lydia was alive? >> i believe there would be. >> we reviewed the case and we tried to find out what happened to see if there was blame pointed at us so we looked into it. >> has the death caused the pearls to rethink their parenting advice. gary gets a lesson in language. >> i don't use the term hitting. >> what is it? >> spanking. >> is there a difference? >> absolutely. >> ahead gary investigates allegations of brainwashing at a fundamentalist baptist home for troubled teens. with a verizon mobile hotspot, you can connect up to 5 wifi devices to the internet with lightning-fast verizon 4g lte speed. a gaming device. ereader. mp3 player. connect any 5 for wifi on the go. get the 4g lte mobile hotspot now for only $49.99. verizon is the place with the largest selection of 4g lte devices. on america's fastest, most advanced 4g network. requires more than wishful thinking. it requires determination and decisive action. i go to e-trade and get unbiased analyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life. i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps. to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. 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[ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. great! did i mention no hands in the bundler? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. report after hearing about a little girl in california beaten to death by her parents. that's the little girl there. that in itself is a horrifying story. the faktd her parentses believed god wanted them to beat their daughter made the story more disturbing. kevin and elizabeth schatz are serving prison sentences. they kept a controversial parenting book in their home, a book that says good wants parents to spank their children with rods and switches and rubber tubing. the couple who wrote the book say they're not to blame for the schatzs it did. the district attorney sees it differently. once again, here's gary tuchman. >> michael pearl is a competitive knife and tomahawk thrower. he never misses the target. but it's just a hobby. his life's work is preaching. he targets what some might call extreme discipline of children. >> i've never met any well-trained emotionally secure, happy, creative children that weren't spanked. >> pearl is a minister of the gospel, a devout christian. he and his wife are best-selling authors that have written many religiously themed books. but their most popular and most controversial is a book called "to train up a children," in which they write about the need to inflict physical pain. >> i don't use the term hitting. >> what's the word? >> spanking. >> is there a difference? >> absolutely. a hand is hitting. a little switch is spanking. a wooden spoon or a spatula, rubber spatula is spanking. >> in the book the pearls that live in rural tennessee declare the rod as a gift from god, use it as the hand of god to train euro your children. they say any spanking to effectively reinforce instruction must cause pain. this couple believed in the pearls, kevin and elizabeth schatz, parents of nine children read their book. as a matter of fact the book was found in their house and put in an evidence bag after the california couple pummeled one of the their daughters for hours. 7-year-old lydia schatz, who was adopted from liberia died after suffering horrific injuries all over her body. mike ramsey is the district attorney in butte county, california. >> what we're talking about and as we charged torture over hours. >> this past spring they pleaded guilty to the killing of their daughter lydia and seriously injuring her older sister, zariah. these are photos of some of the sisters' wounds. many of the images are too gruesome to show. the schatz es said they regularly beat the other children. we're covering the faces of the survivors to protect their private sigh. >> it was there and underlined and underscores. >> there's no question in your mind this book by the pearls influenced the schatzes to beat, brutalize and tearerize the children? >> none at all. >> no question? >> no question. >> the pearls say their book rejects parents losing control and acting out of anger. you're not accepting any blame? >> lulgabsolutely not. there's never been a suggestion by anyone that someone's lost control because of what they read in our book. >> the district attorney clearly disagrees and puts blame on the pearls for the tragedy. he acknowledges that's about as far as he can go. was there ever any consideration at exploring legal charges against the pearls? >> not really, because they have a first amendment right to say awful things. >> the pearls say they feel badly for the girl who died, but are unapologetic. they're not shy about using props and humor. >> i'm going to spank this cnn man. >> to show how they believe god wants parents to spank. >> rubbing the spaghetti all over your head. you shouldn't have done that at 7 years of age. >> okay. >> that hurts, and i'm 50. i mean, i -- >> are there any marks on you? >> no. but you would hit a 5-year-old like that? >> yeah, sure. >> the pearls say you can never be too young for some physical pain. for example, when a baby bites during breast feeding? >> i would gently pull their hair gently but enough to make them let go. >> the spankings with various objects say the pearls are actually done out of love. the pearls appear to be staying prolific with their writings and preachings. they say they're simultaneously writing four new books. there's no indication that any controversy slows them down. why should it say the pearls? they say it worked for their children, and most importantly this is what god wants. >> we don't punish our children, but we sometimes need to get their attention. >> the eight survives schatz children are all in foster homes. they and their sister, lydia, certainly got our attention. gary tuchman, cnn, paradise, california. >> harsh discipline in the name of god. it's not just happening inside private homes like the schatz and the pearls. just ahead, what we uncovered by a home for troubled teens that operates outside of the oversight of regulators because of its religious affiliation. a woman whose childhood was filled with beating all in the name of god. her father was a pastor. >> they're advocating a systemic form of punishment that outside of their community would be referred to as abuse, inside the community it's called spiritual spanking. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus it supports heart health. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. a living, breathing intelligence that is helping business rethink how to do business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ in here, machines have a voice... ♪ [ male announcer ] in here, medical history follows you... even when you're away from home. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities, creating and integrating solutions, helping business, and the world...work. rethink possible. helping business, and the world...work. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. the case of lydia schatz, a 7-year-old girl beaten to dpet by her parents raises the question whether some parents are using the bible their justify their own bad parenting or misinterpreting things. before the break you heard from michael pearl. his book tells parents that god wants them to spank their children with rods and belts and switches and spank them hard enough to cause pain. many fundamentalist preachers ag agree with michael pearl. here's part of an audio recording of a recent serm mon a preacher gave in indiana. >> this evening i'd like to preach on spanking according to the bible. this is not a new subject here at fair haven baptist church. >> he talked about the proper way in his opinion to administer discipline. >> what is a rod? i don't know it's i don't think it's a ball bat or club or whatever the parent can grab at the moment. the rod in scriptures never carefully define, but it's obviously some kind of a stick or a switch, and it's designed to give a sharp, unpleasant pain. if that isn't the result of your spanking, then you're failing. a sharp, unpleasant pain. >> fair haven is part of the network of independent fundamental baptist churches. i spoke to someone that grew up in the church earlier. what was your upbringing like. you underwent biblical chastisement. what did that mean? >> there are a large network of churches known as the independent fundamental bapist. we use ifb to explain the group. the ifb believes in something called breaking the will of a child. my father was a pastor and currently is and practiced this form of discipline that michael pearl is advocating in his book "to train up his child." that could mean that our spanking sessions and i refer to as beating sessions could last 15 minutes to several hours at a time because basically these pastors believe that a child needs to have no will of their own. so they continue to administer discipline until a child is completely dossile in a way they show no negative emotion. that's the goal. >> all the pastors say we're not calling for abuse of a child. this can be misused by bad parents out there that who act out in anger and are irresponsible, but that's not what they're calling for? >> michael pearl says he does not advocate anyone spanking a child in anchor or being out of control, and that's difficult to explain to the you said of the ifb. the pastors are not advocating losing control and beating a child to death. these pastors are advocating a very systemic form of punishment that outside of their community would be referred to as abuse, inside the community it's called spiritual spanking. so that's -- it's a matter of semantics. they would say you shouldn't lose your temper. you shouldn't be out of control. when we hear of parents that kill children in our country, we think of parents that lost control completely, and then it ended in the death of a child. these parents are making a conscious decision to beat a child for several hours at a time because of something that's embedded within their belief system in the ipb. >> you run a website called freedomfromabu freedomfromabuse.net where you bring together people that were victims of abuse from the hands of parents who believe they were falling biblical ruling. plenty of parents believe in some form of corporal punishment? >> that's right. when you think of corporal punishment in our country, i think most people would say or i think majority of people at in the point in time would say, at a time or two i swatted my 2 or 3 yerd on the butt when they were running out into the street. that's not what's being promoted within this group. this is a systemic form of brain cashing of these children, to break them completely of a will. we were completely submissive. here's how i would explain it. when you can imagine a 3 or 4-year-old being spanked, the parent is laying the child down, they're spanking them, and you know, if you're a 3-year-old you're going to squirm during a spanking session like that. that squirm is a revelation to them that the child is exerting their will, and that will needs to be broken. so the parents continue to spank. so in the lydia schatz case i believe they interpreted any bodily movement of lydia's as a willful spirit that they needed to break, and so that's why the session lasted as long as we've heard of